Note 95 — Chapter VIII

The Wattle-bird or Huia was so-called because it had two wattles under its beak as large as those of a bantam cock. It was larger and longer in body than an English blackbird. Its bill was short and thick, and its feathers of a dark lead colour; the colour of its wattles being a dull yellow, almost orange. This description of Cook's refers to the chough-like Heterolocha, in which the male has a short, sharp, straight beak, and the female one which is long and curved like a sickle. The Poë-bird or Tui was about the size of a starling, and belonged to the family of honey eaters. The feathers were (wrote Cook) "of a fine mazarin blue", except those of its neck, which are of a most beautiful silver grey, and two or three short white ones, which are on the pinion joint of the wing. Under its throat hang two little tufts of curled, snow-white feathers, called its "poes", which, being the Tahitian word for ear-rings, was the origin of the name given by Cook's people to the bird, which is not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for the sweetness of its note. "The flesh is also most delicious, and was the greatest luxury the woods afforded us." Of the "fan-tail" warblers mentioned by Cook there were different sorts, but the body of the most remarkable one was scarcely larger than that of a wren, yet it spread a tail of beautiful plumes, "fully three-quarters of a semicircle, of at least of 4 or 5 in. radius". These fan-tails were probably flycatchers of the Muscicapidæ family.